On at least two separate occasions, E-Z Pass — not the State Police — contacted us in a relatively short time when their camera linked our car to an unpaid toll. Upon investigation, these incidents were immediately resolved when their records and our supporting documents were compared. No one ran up a tab that needed to reach a threshold to be handed over to the State Police for investigation.

What took E-Z Pass so long to catch the offender? Somebody must have been asleep on the job. Hello-o-o-o. Wake up, pay attention and do the job right!

Frances S. Della Penna, Kinnelon

Leave Afghanistan

Afghanistan is an ancient, mountainous tribal region that does not speak with one voice until it is invaded and occupied by outsiders. The Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda grew from the resistance to the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. With the passing of the U.S.S.R., bin Laden focused on a new enemy: The United States.

President Obama has surrounded himself with Bush-era military leaders who are demanding a further massive troop buildup there. It will not work. The resistance and vengeance of the Afghani people will rise as our efforts and our troop levels do. Afghanis are allergic to outside efforts at nation-building on their homeland. We must respect this as a reality. The security of our nation must be strengthened at our own borders and in our own communities. We cannot tolerate another bombed wedding party in an Afghan village. We cannot tolerate another ambush of American soldiers at a lonely mountain outpost. We must pay attention to our best intelligence, our common sense and remove ourselves from a region in which we do not belong.

Bruce Agte, Montclair

Enforce cell phone laws

I have to admit I find it amusing that U.S. Senate Democrats are talking about leveraging highway funding as a means to stop cell phone usage while vehicles are in motion. They want to cut federal funding 25 percent for any state that does not punish drivers while using hand held cell phones while driving.

New Jersey has such a law, but like most other states that have passed legislation, it is only marginally effective. The bottom line is indisputable. No matter how many laws states enact, motorists will still use cell phones. All the legislation that has been and will be enacted is merely what I would call "feel good legislation."

There is only one way to stop the use of cell phones. There would have to be a disabling device built into each cell phone. Unfortunately, this will never happen because there isn’t one state legislature that would have the fortitude to pass such a bill.